


Did you notice the secrets?

by averytinyelephant



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Found Family, Gen, Post-Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), and mantis' mcu character fascinates me, because we're all suckers for it deep down, the guardians of the galaxy are underrated, this is honestly just a headcanon dump forgive me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26377699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/averytinyelephant/pseuds/averytinyelephant
Summary: Mantis joins the Guardians and quickly finds a place for herself, but she’s not who they initially thought she was.(A character study of Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy.)
Relationships: Drax the Destroyer & Mantis, Gamora & Mantis (Marvel), Groot & Mantis (Marvel), Mantis & Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Mantis & Nebula (Marvel), Mantis & Peter Quill, Mantis & Rocket Raccoon
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	Did you notice the secrets?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a loooong time ago, but I figured that since I have an AO3, I should put it here too.
> 
> And this is basically me theorizing about and dumping too many headcanons on Mantis' character because it's fascinating, so I'll explain things in clearer terms at the end.
> 
> Originally published: Jan 29th, 2019 on Tumblr (see end notes for link to original).

The Guardians were thrilled to take Mantis into their dysfunctional family. She was Quill’s half-sister, after all, and her bright, happy, and calm attitude was great for morale. She fit in well and quickly, becoming close with even Nebula and convincing her to join the team and live on the ship too. Mantis and Quill were a devious duo, playing harmless pranks and practical jokes on the rest of the crew often. She became a fast favorite of Rocket and Groot as well, her being one of the few that both refused to be anything less than absolutely wonderful to. Gamora and Nebula, both of whom she admired very much, began teaching her the basics of combat and self-defense, and Drax still spoke to her often and taught her more about the universe, as worrisome as that may have been for the rest of the team in regards to her developing social skills. She offered a helping hand to whomever that might need it, a shoulder to cry on, comforting words, and often had to mediate and deescalate conflict between the many egos on board.

But Mantis had secrets. Lots of them, and the crew began seeing that she was hiding much of who she was from them.

Gamora and Nebula noticed first when they were first training with her. Nebula and Mantis were sparring while Gamora instructed Mantis on skills, strategy, posture, stance, etc. Gamora noted carefully Mantis’ extreme lack of basic instinctual abilities to fight, except for her empathic abilities in defense or aiding functions. Nebula and Gamora exchanged a knowing look after just the first round of sparring; they knew what being forced to serve someone was like. However, they realized that the two methods of ensuring servitude were very different between the two masters. They decided to just go as slow as Mantis might need, and Mantis was happy to learn.

Quill was next to notice when he asked her to play a song, and she told him she couldn’t find it in the list. When he looked at the list himself, he found it at the top of the list. She simply laughed sheepishly, saying that she must have missed it and played the song. At the time, he thought nothing of it, but when it happened multiple times and much too often to be a mistake, he suspected something was up. He put his theory to the test when he asked for her to send a message to another ship, confirming it when she told him that the message wasn’t going through, though it sent the first time Quill gave it a try. He asked Gamora to help him make headphones and a special phone for her later that same day.

Rocket noticed that something was wrong on one of his nightly rounds of the ship. Rocket loved the late night hours on days after long missions when everyone was asleep and the ship was quiet. He loved the stillness and the peace of the late nights rather than the chaos and hurried rushes of the rest of the day. Apparently, he wasn’t alone in thinking so, as tonight, he found Mantis in the cockpit in the dead of night, staring out at the stars with a blank look on her face. When he questioned what she was doing, she jumped a bit, but laughed sheepishly and explained that she had just woken up because she had fallen off her bed in her sleep. But Rocket knew that wasn’t true, because if she had fallen, he would have heard it, and if he didn’t even hear her footsteps, then she had been there for some time. He didn’t question Mantis further, but the next day, Mantis woke up to find a stolen diffuser plugged in the wall of her quarters.

Groot noticed, too. Mantis was able to pick up on Groot’s tongue quickly, and so, the two became close quickly. Groot loved Mantis especially— they looked up to her and relied on her for emotional support. They enjoyed how sweet and caring she was and appreciated how she always made sure they went to sleep on time (“You’re growing quickly, you need your rest!”), made sure they were feeling confident before every mission (“You’ll do just fantastic! They won’t see what hit them!”), and even just stayed up to watch the stars on the occasional nights they couldn’t sleep, talking to each other about anything and everything. One such night, Groot told her how much they appreciated her selflessness and caring nature. She visibly froze when she realized what they said, but she quickly turned to them with a smile and a “Thank you, really. I’m very glad that you’ve taken a liking to me.” Groot knew that she wasn’t lying, but they also knew that she was definitely hiding some discomfort. But ever since that day, Groot showed his appreciation for her in a way that Mantis seemed to know how to listen best, in hugs and smiles.

Even Drax, as oblivious as he might be, noticed that something was wrong after a few months of knowing her. Even though they spoke often, Drax never saw anything of Mantis that contradicted her normal smiles and laughter. But this day was far from the usual. For the short time Drax saw her that day, Mantis had her forest green gloves off that day, but her antennae would not stop glowing a bright, alarming red-orange, a far cry from the normal soft blue or yellow hue of her antennae when she touched someone. She acted strangely too, not leaving her quarters nor speaking to any of the other crew members the whole day, and though she was normally quiet, this level of isolation was telling of something ominous. Drax tried to investigate and ask what was wrong, but the second he opened the door Mantis’s quarters, he was overcome with a nauseatingly intense mixture of feelings of anxiety, confusion, fear, desperation, and exhaustion, so strong that he was forced to turn away. As advised by Nebula, he refrained from asking what was wrong the next day when Mantis emerged as her normal self. From then on, every time it happened, which was a scarce occurrence, he made sure to leave a large container of Mantis’s favorite snack (juicy Vomox berries) just outside the door.

Mantis had secrets. Lots of them, and the crew began to believe that she needed time, and that she would tell them all when she was ready.

But the days passed on and the secrets remained hidden. Day after day- it was almost as if Mantis was keeping the secrets locked down in a box far from her heart and mind, so that neither her nor anyone else would have to see the hidden truths.

And so it came to pass that on the day of their final fight, the one day that determined the fate of half the universe, perhaps... many things may have happened differently.

Perhaps the box may have been opened.

Perhaps those secrets may have been a lesson of some sort.

Perhaps those secrets may have been the key to victory.

Perhaps those secrets may have not been anything at all.

But it seemed as if the universe was cursed never to know.

“Something’s happening,” Mantis said, her voice little more than a whisper, her eyes darting around wildly and her small hands clutching Quill’s clothes tighter than before.

In that instant, Mantis gave a trembling sigh and in seconds, her whole body turned to ash in front of her friends’ eyes.

And with her, the secrets faded as well.

**Author's Note:**

> If it wasn't totally clear, here's the secrets the Guardians figure out about Mantis:
> 
> 1\. Gamora and Nebula figure out that Ego taught Mantis to deeply fear her abilities in uses that aren't to save her life or be useful to him. He was also very careful about not allowing her to know how to fight without them so that she would be a better servant. She's slowly unlearning all of this, but it's a very difficult and rocky process.
> 
> 2\. Peter Quill figures out that Mantis is illiterate. Ego never taught her how to read because he wanted a better servant, and since she knows no other world, she only knows what he let her. (She's also a really terrible liar, but that's more canon than me.)
> 
> 3\. Rocket figures out that Mantis has nightmares, and that she likes to look out at the stars to calm herself down after they happen. She won't say what they're about to anyone on the team, but they're about all the other kids Ego brought to his planet in hopes of one of them being a god like him. She watched them all grow up and eventually be killed by Ego, and she wishes that she could have saved them like she helped do with Peter. When she looks at the stars, she wonders whether she's looking at one of their home planets, and she apologizes to any family or friends they might have had out there for letting their remains be lost in the explosion of Ego's planet. She likes to think that they're glad that he's dead now and that it won't happen to anyone else.
> 
> 4\. Groot figures out that Ego never expressed appreciation for what she did for him, so she's not used to it. What he doesn't know is that Mantis believes that she's undeserving of being appreciated for what she does for the team, because she's not as important or skilled or charismatic as everyone else. 
> 
> 5\. Drax figures out that Mantis has trouble controlling her abilities when she herself is feeling emotional distress or overwhelmed by what she can feel. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, her emotions can project onto others (and on particularly bad days, the space around her) without her doing so, and they are often extreme. She's also growing: she doesn't need to touch people in order to feel what they're feeling anymore, she just needs to touch them to change their emotions; which is distressing to her because she doesn't know how to navigate her abilities because she never knew anyone from her own species.
> 
> ==
> 
> Read it on Tumblr here! And hang out with me on Tumblr!


End file.
